Swimming Championships
By Leticia Keighley
In September, 56 swimmers gathered from all around Australia and four from New Zealand, to compete in the third National Down Syndrome Swimming Championships, held at prestigious Knox Grammar Aquatic Centre in Sydney. The second National Championships in 2013 were also held at Knox, following the inaugural national event in Noosa in 2011, and it would be hard to find a more magnificent setting for a swimming event. The Mayor of Ku-ring-gai, Mayor Cheryl Szatow JP and local MP Mr Alistair Henskens MLA were there to welcome everyone and officially open the competition.
The local organising committee – Sarah Harvey, Lyn Foley, Suzanne Lawrence and John & Sue Rumsey - ensured that once again it was a huge success. Lots of catching up with friends, meeting new friends and many good swims were witnessed over the weekend. Some people swam at nationals for the first time, which is a good sign for future competitions. Down Syndrome Swimming Australia (DSSA) encourages people to join their local swimming clubs and engage in the great sport of swimming. DSSA also works to give emerging swimmers something to aim for by running a quality national event for athletes with Down syndrome every two years, alternating with the World Championships which are also held every two years.
The National Championships this year combined both short and long course events for the first time. Short course events give developing swimmers a chance to compete at a quality event, while long course events can cater for the more seasoned swimmers. It was great to see people having a go for the first time and encouraging for them to see some first class swims and witness some World Records being broken.
Phoebe Mitchell from Geelong in Victoria continues to amaze us with her brilliant swimming. Phoebe, who just continues to get better and better, won eight gold medals while also breaking three open World Records. What a girl!
There’s no stopping Aran Miller from Exeter in Tasmania, who is rocketing to the top. Beautiful to watch in the water, Aran also broke an open World Record, to go with his seven gold medals.
Colin Marks (T21) and Matt Walker (Mosaic), both from Brisbane, Queensland, showed their usual good form, each of them also breaking an open World Record at the meet. Colin, Matt, Daniel Rumsey and Stephen Donovan finished with a total of 12 World Records between them in the M1 (over 25) category.
The overall program flowed really well, many National and Oceania records were set and there were lots of other great swims as well. But it wasn’t all about action in the pool. The first day concluded with a formal dinner in the impressive Knox dining hall, with special guest speaker Chris Fydler. Chris treated us to a video of ‘that’ exciting relay (4x100 freestyle) that clinched gold for the Aussie team over USA at the Olympic Games in Sydney 2000. The emotion of the race took over and everyone, the entire dining room, shouted for the Aussie team and cheered as though the race had just been won! Chris also passed around his gold medal and Olympic torch for everyone to see up close and take photos, which was a real treat.
Sunday finished with a fun mixed relay - males, females, athletes, coaches all in - lots of cheering and a little bit of cheating. Meanwhile the BBQ was fired up and everyone enjoyed a late lunch AND some essential dancing to conclude a very enjoyable National Championships.
The next World Championships will be in Florence, Italy in July 2016, and updates can be found on the DSISO website to find out about the next National Championships in 2017 keep checking the DSSA website
Voice December 2015